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Apr 13, 2012

A landscape to remember - Hans Bruzja (Part 3)

(Part 1. ...I have conducted a small activity when I was in Albania regarding the topic. Later on the paper I will further explain it. As I said I will focus my research in a place or village called Dhermi.....& Part 2. It is true that for the moment the situation on that area is not good, and many parts are covered with rubbish or are not cleaned by the natives themselves, but I have been thinking of a number of reasons why this situation will change.... )

Firstly I believe that the new environmental
reforms that our state is undertaking regarding the integration process
will help in improving the situation of different landscapes and natural reserves in Albania.
This
is the case for my favorite landscape, the one we are talking about.
In a few years I believe
the state will return to its position as a regulatory tool for tourism and business. This will
definitely touch the landscape in Dhermi (the name of the village) and natives will finally understand
that their life and business is dependent on the landscape. They will care for it more than
anything.The reasons why the landscape changed were mainly political and human caused.
While the
change that I predict for the future will be in synchronization between them.First the
government has to take the situation under control and people will be conscious and will have the
awareness of their surroundings.For the cultural part I think there will not be many changes in the
future. The southern part of Albania has a big influence from Greece and this is reflected
especially in religion.
All natives of that area are Christian orthodox and around the forest there are
many small chapels and also big churches near the village.

One thing that did not change was the
maintenance of these churches.
They resisted to communism which was against any kind of
religion and they have been maintained by natives of the area for the last 20 years.
Today many
tourists visit the hundred year’s old churches and small chapels or temples where people can pray or
just enjoy the culture differences.In my opinion this religious culture will not change and
therefore the cultural landscape will be the same, preserving the old tradition.
I believe this way
because I know that in Albania there is harmony between religions. So in my perspective the future
of this landscape will be a better one. In physical terms, I would say that what is already ruined
will take years to be restored, like for example trees and other vegetation but the rest will
hopefully be maintained and used efficiently for the good of natives, tourists and of course nature.
I decided that all the
observations I have made in these years should be communicated and delivered to people in order to
see the impact it has on them. For this I decided to use the simple method of walk and talk. I cannot
consider them as interviews because it was mostly talks.
When I was in Albania 1 month ago I
decided to talk to people in my city about all these changes in the last 20 years that happened
in Dhermi; decided to address only to persons between the age of 40-60 years old because they
might have visited the place during communism time and after it, so I wanted to hear their
opinion and their reaction. I talked to 20 persons, many of them did not visit the village and the
beach during communism because not everyone was allowed to go there, but they had been in
the last 20 years.
6 persons had visited the place in both periods.
After talking to them and
explaining my observations, the changes and their reasons, all of them agreed on the current situation.
The persons, who had not visited the place during communism, were worried mostly about the
pollution of the environment and they were aware that something must be done for that place.
While the 6 persons who had visited the place on both periods were more revolted to what has
happened there in the last 20 years. They were remembering how the place was 20 years ago and
how it is now. For them the changes were drastic and they were blaming mostly the government.
From their reaction I understood that the place was much more different when they were young,
meaning 30 years ago.

This is the small activity I used
to convey my interpretation of this landscape for the last 20 years. If I would analyze the
approach I took for this activity I would say that there are positive and negative features in it.The
positive one I think is the selection of the audience. I chose the age group of 40-60 years old
because they have witnessed more in the political, social and cultural history of the country and
they have been living in both political systems, so they are able to make a better
distinction. If I would have asked young people around the age of 25 I am sure that they would not be
very much worried about the landscape as long as there are nice hotels, bar and pubs for them
near the beach.

While regarding the negative parts of my approach or better saying what I could
have done better, it has to do with the place where I did these talks. I met people in my city, in the
capital and it would have been much better if I could have asked natives of Dhermi village.

The
natives have been living there so for them the changes are even more obvious. Maybe by asking
some people who were actually part of the social changes to the landscape I could have gotten
some more appropriate answer and reasons why all this happened. Maybe a more detailed research
and a higher number of people asked could have given more information on the awareness of
people about landscape in Albania.
I choose the village of Dhermi not only as my favorite
landscape in Albania but also as one of the most frequented touristic place in Albania in the
last 10 years.

After all this thinking,
analyzing and evaluating, a few questions come into my mind.
It is more appropriate though to introduce
some real questions about landscape.Is landscape a scene we are looking at, or a world we are
living in? Is landscape all around us or just in front of us? Do we observe or inhabit landscape?
(Wylie, 2007, p.4)
It is through these questions that people should start thinking more for
the landscape around them. They should start to understand that landscape is part of us and that
we are part of it.
We were born in nature and that’s where we are supposed to live.

Therefore we
should take care of the nature just as we take care of ourselves.Imagine a world without nice and
beautiful landscapes? It would not be called our world anymore.